by Sam Amick and Jeff Zillgitt, USATODAY

by Sam Amick and Jeff Zillgitt, USATODAY

When it comes to the NBA's individual awards, sometimes it's not how you start but how you finish.

Just ask Indiana Pacers guard Lance Stephenson, whose league-leading fifth triple-double in a huge win Sunday vs. the Oklahoma City Thunder came just in time to win a few more votes for the league's Most Improved Player trophy. Or his teammate Roy Hibbert, the Pacers big man who once looked like a lock for Defensive Player of the Year but now finds himself in a close race with the likes of Joakim Noah (Chicago Bulls) Andre Iguodala (Golden State Warriors) and others after struggling in recent months.

After assessing this complicated landscape â?? considering each player's body of work, any relevant context, and the reality that playoff contenders typically win the day on this front â?? USA TODAY Sports' Sam Amick and Jeff Zillgitt came to the following conclusions.

Rookie of the year

Zillgitt's pick: Michael Carter-Williams, Philadelphia 76ers

The 76ers point guard, the No. 11 pick in the 2013 draft, might pay for playing on the league's worst team that lost 26 consecutive games.

But Carter-Williams had 22 points, 12 assists, nine steals and seven rebounds in his first game and played through any rookie wall he hit and worked on improving amidst a tough season right up to the end. As recently as last week, he had a game with 23 points, eight assists and seven steals.

Carter-Williams is the only rookie to have more than one triple-double, and he is on pace to become the third player to lead all rookies in scoring, rebounding and assists, joining Oscar Robertson (1960-61) and Alvan Adams (1975-76). He is also set to become the sixth rookie to average at least 16 points, six assists and five rebounds â?? along with Robertson, Magic Johnson, Penny Hardaway, Steve Francis and Chris Paul.

Amick's pick: Carter-Williams

Defensive Player of the Year

Amick's pick: Joakim Noah, Chicago Bulls

There was a time when this was a one-horse race, but Indiana Pacers' Hibbert stumbled so mightily that Noah wins the prize. And with good reason.

He's the rare combination of feared rim defender, agile perimeter presence and vocal captain of a Bulls defense that â?? while second to the Pacers overall â?? was the best in the league when it mattered most. Since Jan. 7, when Chicago traded one of its best two-way players, small forward Luol Deng, to the Cleveland Cavaliers, Noah's Bulls have allowed a league-low 97.7 points per 100 possessions.

On the individual front, Noah's ability to hit the glass (11.2 rebounds per game), defend the rim (opponents shot 46.7% against him) and lead a group that was already undermanned before the Deng trade (no Derrick Rose, again) was nothing short of special. And unlike Hibbert, he was an elite impact defender from beginning to end.

There was an undeniable correlation between Hibbert's late-season struggles and Indiana's collective collapse. Since a March 2 win that gave them a league-best 46-13 record and maintained their status as the top defense (94.4 points allowed per 100 possessions at that time, way ahead of the then-second-place Bulls at 97.8), the Pacers have gone just 9-13 while having the 10th best defense in that stretch (103.5 points allowed per 100 possessions).

A vital subplot here was their inability to control the glass: they plummeted from second in the league in rebounding percentage pre-March 3 (52.5) to 13th from that point on (50.5). Hibbert was the worst culprit of them all ,as he averaged a deplorable 4.1 rebounds per game during that stretch (he averaged 7.5 rebounds per game up until that point). Statistics provided by NBA.com/stats.

Zillgitt's pick: Andre Iguodala, Golden State Warriors

Most Improved Player

Zillgitt's pick: Blake Griffin, Los Angeles Clippers

This is the most difficult award to figure out because there are so many factors to consider beyond the basics of "are his statistics better than they were last season?" Maybe increased playing time led to better stats or a Player A switched teams and now Player B has more opportunities and who's to stay Player B wouldn't have performed the same last season.

There are several strong candidates this season â?? the Phoenix Suns have three â?? but Clippers forward Blake Griffin fits the parameters: a player whose production has increased without a significant increase in minutes or opportunities. Griffin is averaging just 3.4 minutes more per game this season than last year is averaging 6.1 more points this season.

Griffin's free throw percentage, rebounding per 36 minutes and player efficiency rating also increased compared to last season, and though his shooting percentage is slightly down this season, he has improved his shooting percentage from mid-range, according to NBA.com/stats.

Amick's pick: Lance Stephenson, Indiana Pacers

Sixth Man of the Year

Amick's pick: Jamal Crawford, Los Angeles Clippers

It's one thing to put up big offensive numbers that come without a purpose (see the Los Angeles Lakers' Nick Young). It's quite another to do what Jamal Crawford did this season in a Western Conference that was as loaded as ever.

After coming in second place to the New York Knicks' J.R. Smith last season, the Clippers' super sixth man upped his scoring (16.5 points per game to 18.5) and playmaking (2.5 assists per game to 3.2) while becoming one of the league's most dangerous fourth-quarter threats. Crawford is third in the league in fourth-quarter scoring, with his 6.8 points per trailing only MVP-frontrunner Kevin Durant of the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Houston Rockets' James Harden. The company behind him in that category is equally impressive, as the Golden State Warriors' Stephen Curry and reigning MVP LeBron James of the Miami Heat are fourth and fifth, respectively.

Crawford not only got better late in the games when the pressure was on, but he got more efficient. His fourth-quarter shooting percentage (49.2) is much better than his overall mark (41.8) while his fourth-quarter three-point percentage (45.6) is also significantly improved (36.5 for the season).

Crawford and the much-improved Blake Griffin managed to help the Clippers do something this season that most would have thought impossible not too long ago: survive without Chris Paul. When their All-Star point guard was out from Jan. 4 to Feb. 8 with a shoulder injury, the Clippers went 12-6. Crawford (who started five of those 18 games and 23 in all this season) trailed only Griffin in scoring (22 points per game) while also averaging five assists and just two turnovers.